April summary

In April, I dropped from the very fast growth in March to more realistic viewing figures. 408 In one month, or some 13 a day, is still clearly above the February average, and May had a flying start already. The global appeal of this blog is still increasing as well, with for the first time visitors from Australia, China, Lebanon, Pakistan, Portugal and Ukraine (22 different countries so far!)

Major story: an Italian School painting, which I highlighted and analyzed (but about which I had some misgivings) was estimated at $6,000 to $8,000 and sold for $144,000! Must be the first real major sleeper I blogged about (before it was known to be a sleeper of course, I posted about a few sleepers after the fact but that's somewhat easier :-D ).

I also highlight a lot of paintings which aren't really hidden treasures, but either correctly estimated but badly described, or simply overestimated. In the latter category, I'm always happy when such things fail to sell, like e.g. with these later copies or fakes. Or when they don't fetch the presale estimate of $15,000 but nearly match my estimate of $5,000 instead. But it also happens that an unrecognised Rubens copy (pictured), where I thought the estimate of $2,000 to be right, eventually sells for more than $10,000 instead, which makes you wonder what you (or the buyer) have missed.

On the other hand, some lots I thought were underestimated also didn't sell, like this British portrait in which I saw the hand of a known American painter, or these two Dutch paintings which I thought were by Jacob Toorenvliet but didn't sell at Bonham's, or this painting which I described as Van de Velde meets Rembrandt...

For my 100th post, I highlighted a sleeper Dutch portrait, which I rated quite high, certainly worth more than the 6,000 to 8,000 Euro estimate. Showing my influence and predictive abilities, the painting failed to sell...

More succesful were e.g. this old Flemish portrait, which fetched double the estimate at Rops, a Flemish School Lazarus sold in Dijon for triple the estimate (and exactly my estimate!), a Pietro Paolini at Vanderkindere that fetched twice its estimate, a Saint Helena going for three times its estimate, or a naval scene by Musin (pictured) which fetched 5 times the estimate!

My bids: I made bids on two lots. The first one, displayed above was estimated at £400 to 600, but when I recognised the author of the painting and the work it was a preparatory sketch for, I considered it to be worth more. Sadly, I wasn't the only one and it ended at £2,200. No idea whether it will appear at a major auction with the right description, or in a museum, I just hope it will be available to the scholars to study as it is important for the artist. The second one, a badly described but easily recognisable Frans Francken II, sold for its value, not for the bargain price I hoped for in vain (but which was still above the estimate!).